The Killing Game
by Meagan and Sasha
Summary: A dangerous killer has escaped from a high security prison and it's up to Obi-Wan and Angel to catch him before he kills again. No one is safe. But help is coming as a frightening vision sends Qui-Gon to Lycon again. Sequel to Welcome Home, Obi-Wan.
1. Prologue: Visions of Death

**The Killing Game**

**Disclaimer: **We are making no profit off this work. George Lucas owns the characters and universe, except for a few original characters.

**AN:** Hey everyone! We're back! We are so pleased that everyone enjoyed our first short story, _Welcome Home Obi-Wan _and since it was so popular we decided to write a sequel to it. Thanks again to all our readers and reviewers, we have very much appreciated hearing from you! We do hope everyone enjoys this story just as much, though this is darker than the first one as we see Obi-Wan chasing down a very dangerous criminal. Of course, Qui-Gon will be in it and several other Jedi might be making appearances as well. So stay tuned to see who Obi-Wan meets again! This is just a prologue to the story and hopefully the first chapter will be posted shortly!

Anyway, for those of you just joining us, here is a quick summary of events up to the present. Obi-Wan Kenobi left the Jedi Order as a teenager and never returned, eventually settling down with a wife and children. He has become a very well known and respective detective for their security forces. Meanwhile Qui-Gon was quite bitter about Obi-Wan's leaving for a while, but eventually learned to let it go and even looked for his former apprentice, but never found him. The two never made amends and more than ten years goes by until they meet again. Through a series of events, they finally make amends and become friends.

Now nearly two years later, certain events will bring the two men back together again in a game of deadly intrigue.

**Prologue: "Visions of Death"**

**Qui-Gon's Point of view**

"_Oh yes, the little wife." I couldn't see a face, only hearing a deep sinister voice from _

_somewhere in the darkness. "I've been waiting for this."_

"_Please let me go." The woman's voice was pleading, begging. Somewhere close by young children were crying. "We've done nothing to you, especially my babies. Just don't hurt my babies."_

"_Mhm...children..." The man's eyes glistened in the darkness. "Maybe I'll kill them after you." The white gleam of a knife sliced through the tension filled air, straight at the woman's throat. Crying out in utter pain, she fell to floor, the children screaming in absolute terror._

_Trying to crawl away, blood seeping from her wound to the floor, the woman tried to reach her children. The killer stepped over her, taking a pillow from the couch and easily placed it over her face._

_The poor woman tried to fight it off, but the quick loss of blood was making her weak, very weak. "Please..."_

"_Say goodnight." With that, he pressed the pillow to her face. She fought him for a moment or two before her body started going limp. And somehow, seconds before her light vanished into the infinite light of the Force, I heard a name. "Obi-Wan."_

I awoke with a start, sweat drenching me. Diedre. I'd been having this vision on and off for weeks now, but before I hadn't a clue to who this was, until now. Now I could finally do something about it, the Force urging me on.

Rising from bed, I noticed that the gray of predawn was slightly showing through the window. I wasn't about to waste a minute.

"I'm coming with you." Tahl informed me after I described my vision, mere seconds before I was to make a dash for my transport.

I immediately shook my head. "It's too dangerous. There's a madman out there somewhere. I have to warn Obi-Wan."

She gave me a look of complete annoyance. "Qui-Gon, I am a Jedi Master. I can handle it. Besides my hearing is twice as attuned as yours. And, if there is any trouble, I can help Diedre with the young ones."

I stood still for a brief moment, making a quick decision. After all I wasn't that surprised that she wanted to come along. Ever since Obi-Wan and I reconnected nearly two years ago and after keeping somewhat in touch, she had wanted to see him and to meet his family. "Alright. But I'm leaving now."

Tahl gave me a smile. "I had a strange feeling you'd be leaving, so I'm already packed."

I didn't even want to question how she knew that, but just walked toward hers, taking her arm and soon we were on our way to Lycon. I could only hope we weren't too late.


	2. Chapter 1: The Escape

**The Killing Game**

**Disclaimer: **We are making no profit off this work. George Lucas owns the characters and universe, except for a few original characters.

**AN:** Hey everyone! We're back! We are so pleased that everyone enjoyed our first short story, _Welcome Home Obi-Wan _and since it was so popular we decided to write a sequel to it. Thanks again to all our readers and reviewers, we have very much appreciated hearing from you! We do hope everyone enjoys this story just as much, though this is darker than the first one as we see Obi-Wan chasing down a very dangerous criminal. Of course, Qui-Gon will be in it and several other Jedi might be making appearances as well. So stay tuned to see who Obi-Wan meets again!

Anyway, for those of you just joining us, here is a quick summary of events up to the present. Obi-Wan Kenobi left the Jedi Order as a teenager and never returned, eventually settling down with a wife and children. He has become a very well known and respective detective for their security forces. Meanwhile Qui-Gon was quite bitter about Obi-Wan's leaving for a while, but eventually learned to let it go and even looked for his former apprentice, but never found him. The two never made amends and more than ten years goes by until they meet again. Through a series of events, they finally make amends and become friends.

Now nearly two years later, certain events will bring the two men back together again in a game of deadly intrigue.

**Chapter One: "The Escape"**

Please note this chapter takes place a couple weeks before the prologue.

****Obi-Wan's point of view****

"Are you sure you're alright?" I asked Diedre as we gathered up the kids and things, heading toward her parents' for a rather large family barbecue. "You still look rather pale."

"I'm fine." She set Seth down and we watched as he toddled through the grass.

"Daddy." Kalei bouncing around, interrupted our conversation. "Can I go play?"

"Go on." I motioned her forward, toward the open front door. "But go give Grandma a hug first."

With that she took off as Anna and Angel stepped out onto the front porch. As we neared, I could hear the tale end of their conversation.

"Mom, I'm happy with my career." Angel was saying. "I like what I do."

Diedre and I exchanged glances, not wanting to get into that particular conversation as Anna bent down to give Kalei a hug.

"But I would like more than two grandchildren." She said as she reached out her arm to help Seth climb up the stairs. "That a boy. You'll get it soon."

I caught Angel's gaze as she rolled her eyes and I had a hard time not laughing, but decided to take pity on her. "Hey Angel there is another bag of food in the speeder, can you get it?"

"Of course." She gave me a grateful look and hurried down the drive.

"Oh, Obi-Wan go ahead and take that bag to the back." Anna told me as I greeted her with a kiss on the cheek. "The boys are already grilling. They will need that."

"Okay." I took Seth's hand. "Come on Kalei. I'm sure the kids are back there too."

Leaving the ladies together, I took the kids, heading through the house toward the backyard. Of course with Diedre's extended family hanging out everywhere, it took several minutes to get there.

"Hey Obi-Wan!" One of Diedre's cousins, Jeremy, called from by the grill. "It's your turn."

I couldn't help but laugh as the kids soon left my side, heading off to the play set and pool. "I did it last time."

Jeremy gave me a look as his brother, Todd, called over his shoulder. "Please tell me you brought the good stuff."

Stepping closer over, I gave him a slight grin. "You think I would come all the way over without it?"

The two of the looked at each other before back to me. "Yes."

Setting the bag down on the card board table besides the grill, I started rummaging through it before pulling them out. "Though I need to put these back into the cooler."

They both took one before nodding toward several sitting back in the grass. "There's ice in them already."

Quickly stepping over to the cooler, I took one for myself before placing them with the other drinks.

"So, how much sleep have you been getting?" Todd was asking when I rejoined them a moment or so later.

"Between work and the baby, absolutely nothing." Jeremy said, taking a large swig of his drink, before nodding toward his three month old baby, sleeping in a swing underneath a large tree. "Of course she sleeps now, not when we're trying to."

"Thank the Force, Diedre and I done with that." I took a swig, seeing my two playing in the pool with one Diedre's older teenage cousins. "They are both out of diapers, so unless a storm or something wakes them up, they sleep all night."

"That must be nice." Jeremy dryly commented. "You want mine?"

I couldn't help but laugh. "Are you kidding me? We're done." I turned from watching the kids to my cousin. "Actually once you get past the not sleeping part, it's not that bad. There are not running everywhere and getting into everything. You can actually hold them. Kalei will barely let me rock her to sleep anymore. She'd rather be playing."

The other two laughed. "Good luck with that. She's too much like Diedre, always everywhere, doing something for someone."

I couldn't help but smile slightly. She was definitely taking after my wife. "That she is."

Jeremy and I discussed the kids for a bit, while keeping an eye on the cooking meat, with Todd rolling his eyes, saying he'd never get married and have kids.

So, it wasn't that much later, the women were setting the food on the tables and the kids were climbing from the pool. It took quite a doing for everyone to settle down. After all, Diedre's grandparents were still alive, her father with his brother and sister, with all three being married. So, Diedre had a total of eight cousins and four siblings. Of course, throw in several spouses, boyfriends/girlfriends and a couple college roommates and four second cousins and you get a crammed in backyard barbecue.

I sat down on the table and pulled Seth into my lap, trying to keep his hands from reaching the food. "One more moment, and Daddy will feed you."

"Hungry Daddy." He was starting to pout, a sure sign he was ready for lunch.

"Do we need another high chair?" Anna asked as she placed a small sippie cup by me, then handing a Seth a couple grapes. "Here you go."

I shook my head, noting two of the other little ones were using some. "He'll be fine. I can hold him."

She only nodded as she sat down next to her husband.

So of course for the next while, we all ate way too much, but enjoyed each other's company. Being the fact the majority of the family was one way or another involved in the Security Force, recent cases were discussed and we spent half the time teasing the couple of rookies. Sometime during the afternoon, the kids all went down for naps, including Kalei as running around the backyard had quite exhausted them, and the adults got to spend some time alone. Some of the ladies went sunbathing by the pool and others sat with their drinks under the shade tree gabbing. Of course we men grabbed our drinks and went back inside to watch the game that we all thought we'd miss. All in all it was a good day and reminded me how blessed I was to have such a wonderful family, even if I married into it.

But all good things must come to an end and just as I was beginning to put our things into the speeder when my father in law came up to me. "Do you have moment to talk or do you want to take Diedre and the kids home first?"

I straightened up and glanced over to where Diedre, Angel and a few of their cousins were talking and laughing by the porch swing. The children were playing games at their feet. "They'll be fine for a while. What is it?"

His face looked grim and he motioned me toward the house. "We can talk inside."

With a funny feeling I followed him back inside the house.

I rubbed the edges of my beard, hearing the news, not liking it at all. "When did he escape?"

"Late last night." Dan Cummings, the chief of police and also Diedre's uncle, explained as we were situated in Seth's den. "They think, since he worked in this area before, he'll stick around."

"They sure about that Dad?"Jeremy asked, who was also another detective, asked. "He's too clever. He has to know we'll be after him."

We all agreed to that, but sometimes criminals who were quite intelligent, did things for certain purposes, even if it didn't seem like the wisest course of action. "He's trying to outdo us, to prove that he's better than us. It's a game to him to see how many he can kill before he gets caught again."

"Has he already do that?" Todd asked.

"Not to my knowledge." Chief Dan said, rereading the notes he had already gathered. "But I was just notified, so I might not have received everything yet. We need to go to the prison and see what's going on."

The men continued to discuss the case and I found my mind drifting slightly as I saw the children playing in the yard, their laughter echoing through the slightly opened window. Several years ago, Jack Braden had torn apart many families and he wanted to again. But would he follow his previous MO or would he set a new pattern? But if this was a game to him, wouldn't he play with us, to see how long it would take to figure out his new pattern? To see how he would torture us, haunt all of us with how many women he was murdering, as if taunting our skills at catching him. Oh he could certainly would kill again, and soon too. The game had already started.

"Obi-Wan." Nearly startled, I turned to face Seth. "What is it?"

Seth's gaze was questioning, well knowing I hadn't just been staring off into space.

I met his gaze before glancing about the room at all their faces. "He's going to kill again, soon I expect. He wants us to play his game."

"You think he'll pick different victims?"

I shook my head. "He's too obsessed with women not too. With his deranged past, I don't think he'll kill anyone else intentionally. However, who he hits and how, will be different. And what he does to them, will more than likely change." We all shuddered, remembering how he raped and beat them before he strangled them. "But we won't know how he's working until he strikes. He's already in the lead."

"And he knows it too."

"Let's get to work." Seth said as Dan pulled out his blinking comlink, finally receiving some new information. We all glanced at each other, well knowing it was time to get to work. We had little time before lives were lost.

"Obi-Wan what's going on?" Diedre asked me the second I climbed into bed late that night, well early morning as we stayed up most of the night working. Her mother eventually had taken most of the ladies home, that didn't join us that is, once they realized we were on a case. This time, I had come home long enough to catch an hour or two of sleep, and shower before heading back to the office.

I sighed as I stared into her eyes for long moments before answering her. It would be in the paper in the morning anyway. Better she hear the truth from me, rather a distorted one from anyone else. "Jack Braden escaped from prison last night."

A slight gasp escaped her throat, well remembering the horror of his first killing spree. "Oh no. How did he do that?"

As I held her close, I told her what I could. "So, until this guy is back behind bars, nearly the entire department will be on the case. Hopefully with all of us working on it, we'll catch him before too many lives are taken."

I felt her hands in my hair, stroking gently, as she knew I was already feeling guilty for the ones we couldn't save. "You'll get him. I don't think there's a criminal that has eluded you yet."

"It took me some time to figure out his MO before."

Diedre smiled, her confidence in my abilities bolstering my confidence in myself. "Yes, but you know the way he works now, half the figuring is already done."

I tugged my precious wife closer. "Thank you my love. I think I needed to hear that."

"Your welcome." She stretched up slightly, kissing me. "You leaving planet?"

I nodded. "Later this morning. We're going out to the prison on the Lycon moon. I just came home for a few hours of sleep and to clean up a bit."

"Be careful." I could hear the stress in her voice.

"Don't worry, I will be and I'm not going alone." I assured her. "You be careful too. We don't know whose he's going after this time. In fact it might be a good idea if you and the kids stay with your parents while I'm gone. Your uncles and dad will be running things here. You'll be well protected."

"Obi-Wan that's not necessary. I'll be fine."

I gave her a look. "I have a bad feeling about this, Diedre, promise me if things start happening you'll go over there or stay with someone. I can't stand the idea of someone hurting you when I can't be there to protect you."

She gave me a look, but her soft sigh told me she relented. "I promise, my love."

I leaned down and kissed her deeply, silencing the rest of our conversation.

Wanting to get an early start, I rose after only a few hours of sleep and took a quick shower. I gathered a few things together before kissing a still sleeping Diedre goodbye. After peaking in on the children, I quickly headed out toward the main office.

"Good morning Detective." The desk duty cop greeted me when I walked through the front doors of my office and I knew by the tone of his voice, Braden's escape was out.

"Good morning." I sipped on the coffee I had just picked up, needing at least a little something today. "Is anyone back in yet?"

"The Chief is in for sure as well as several others." He told me. "They were in the conference room earlier."

"Thanks." I told him before heading down the hallway. I was nearly to my office when the Chief and Seth caught up with me.

"Obi-Wan, come join us." The two looked like they hadn't slept at all.

"Sure." I turned and followed them into the conference room which had notes and files spread all over the table.

"This is what we've been able to gather so far. We still need to go over to the prison and talk to them in person, the inmates and the guards." I nodded as we continued the discussion from the night before with them finally ending with. "Take a few others and go out to the prison and start the interviews. We'll go from there."

I nodded my agreement and we started to gather our things together before quickly discussing what kinds of things we should be asking, but the older men very well knew how I just knew instinctively what to ask and how to ask in order to get what we really needed.

Several hours later, I ran a frustrating hand through my hair. We hadn't really learned all that much more. Sure, we knew when Braden broke out, which direction he ran, that he managed to get off planet. He could be anywhere, well since the ship he took was low on fuel, we figured he was still in the relative area. Of course we plotted out all possible routes and locations, altering everyone possible that a killer might be stopping for fuel sometime shortly.

Then we started interviewing a lot of inmates, particularly the ones he might have disclosed something to, but wasn't getting much more The worst part about it was I felt they were telling the truth, that they weren't covering any tracks. No one was surprised when he escaped though, as he did talk about that, but most prisoners did at one time or another, but no one took it too seriously.

"Why do you think he escaped?" I looked up into the hardened eyes of another criminal that supposedly spend more time with Braden than some of the others. "You must have a theory, all you cops do."

"If I did, I wouldn't be spending all my time sitting in here with you would I?"

He considered that for a moment or two before leaning back in his chair, a sly grin on his face. He knew something, I could feel it. "You probably wouldn't, but then again, you're not that smart if you hadn't figured out Jack's plan yet."

"I got him and you behind bars didn't I?" I tried to bait him, hoping he would unknowingly shed a little light onto this situation. "I outsmarted you once and Braden for that matter."

He grunted, not liking to remember that. "And we didn't like it either. You've got a lot enemies in here. Do you really think we'd tell you anything?"

"Oh, I guess I was hoping some time in here might have straightened you out a bit." I signaled the guard to come and get him. I was done for now. "But I guess I was wrong."

The prisoner didn't say a wrong as he was led out of the room and back towards his cell. I sat there for long moments, deep in thought.

"Well that was nearly pointless." Angel plopped down besides me. "What have we learned besides the fact that he stole a ship and flew the coup?"

I turned my gaze toward my sister-in-law. "That he's after one thing." I waited till I had her full attention before continuing. "He wants to outsmart, not the prison, not the Lycon Security Force, but me. He escaped to beat me. It's driven him mad that I was the one that discovered his pattern, that trapped and caught him before locking him away. He wants me to play his game until he comes out on top."

Angel stared at me for long moments before speaking. "And you got all of that out of one little statement? Are you sure?"

"Positive. There was something in his eyes that said it." I shrugged lightly. "Just a feeling really, but it makes sense if he would come after me."

"So what's the game plan?" Angel asked as we got up to leave the room. "We just can't wait around for him to kill someone."

I nodded, still deep in thought. "I know, but we have very little to go on and there aren't enough of us to search all the possible places he could be." Though we had all the major ones being checked out and searched.

We had stepped into the outer room and saw the others that had come with us.

"Was I the only one that didn't pick up a thing?" Jeremy, quite frustrated, asked.

Angel nodded. "Though Mister I can sense things normal people can't did."

I soon found all their eyes on me as I sent her a look of warning. "Angel."

"Well, you did." She insisted and proceeded to inform them of it. "Braden escaped to go after Obi-Wan."

"You sure?"

I nodded, giving them the brief clues here and there I had picked up and that last interview. Once we discussed it a bit, we headed back towards home, all wanted to nail this guy once and for all.

Once back in the quiet of my office, I looked over the notes from that morning, feeling even more sure that he was wanting to play just with me, but I was so frustrated that I hadn't a clue to where he was going to next. What was even more frustrating was that Jack Braden knew he was in charge. The game was his.

With a frustrated sigh, I got up from my desk and left the room, walking swiftly across the hallway to Angel's. "Where's his file? Has anyone pulled out from archives yet?"

She looked up from her notes from this morning, obviously trying to find something we might have missed. "I'm not sure. You might want to ask Dad or Uncle Dan."

I nodded before heading down toward their offices. I knocked on Seth's door and found him sitting behind his desk, looking quite tired and stressed. "Are you alright?"

He nodded slightly. "I spent most of the morning trying to notify all of the family members of Braden's victims and making sure they have regular patrols checking on them."

I held back a wince. That couldn't have been easy. "Are they holding up okay?"

"Mostly. Angry as well as scared. Hopefully he won't go after any of them." He shook his head, then changed the subject. "What do you have?"

"Very little." I gave him the run down on what was going on, that the major hangers that had been checked out had come back clear with no suspicious activities. No possible hot leads. "Though something one of the prisoners said gave me a little insight."

Seth raised an eyebrow, asking what it was.

"I think he broke out of prison to outsmart me, to prove that he's better than me." I held up my hand to foretell any protest. "I was the one that baited and trapped him. It's personal to him. I haven't a clue to where he's going to strike, but I have a feeling it's going to be soon."

Seth leaned back in his chair, clearly studying me. "You sure that's he's going to be going after only you?"

"Positive."

Seth seemed to consider this for another several minutes before sighing. "Very well. Dan was just in here and we decided you should be leading the task force we've set up to get this killer, especially since you have this uncanny ability to get into their heads." He paused as he looked into my eyes. "We're going to need it."

I nodded towards him. "We'll get him before too long. He's going to get cocky and he'll slip."

"Hopefully before too many die." A brief silence stretched before us, well knowing, more likely than not, lives would be lost. "Now, here are the ones we were thinking of assigning to the task force."

I leaned over Seth's desk, looking over the names as we started to discuss the new task force. We were just about agreed on things when a knock sounded on the door.

"Come in." Seth called as I finished catching up on my notes.

"Here's all the documentation you wanted." The files clerk glanced toward my direction. "Oh good, Detective, I was just about to go find you. This just came for you."

I took the data pad from him, somehow already knowing it was from him. I activated the message and read what he wrote as Seth started questioning how that message got to us.

"_Hello old friend. Are you up for another rousing game? I've already played the first piece and moving onto number two But what game am I playing? And how many people will die before you figure it out? Catch me if you can Kenobi." _

I set the date pad down and turned back to Seth. "We need to get every security station at all possible locations on the com. He's murdered again and we've got to find out where."

Seth sighed as we left the room. A feeling of dread filled me. There was a killer on the loose and we had no idea where he was. Braden might feel it was a game, but this was no game. People's lives were a stack and I wouldn't rest until they were all safe.


	3. Chapter 2: The Two Murders

**The Killing Game**

**Disclaimer: **We are making no profit off this work. George Lucas owns the characters and universe, except for a few original characters.

**AN: **Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'm off this weekend, so I've spent some time catching up on our stories, as well as eating and sleeping too much!!! We are so glad that everyone has been enjoying our story, with Obi-Wan, Diedre and their family. We certainly wanted to put them in, showing a side to Obi-Wan that you normally don't see. Hopefully the next chapter will be soon, but we are still mapping out the rest of the story! Anyway, here is another chapter, with Obi-Wan starting to track down the killer with a bit of a twist at the end! Hope you enjoy it as well as the rest of your holiday weekend!

**Chapter Two: "The Two Murders"**

"We've got it!" Angel called across the hall as we were all comming everyone we had contacts with, trying to find where Braden had murdered another woman. "There was a woman murdered just last night, well, early this morning, on Rindell."

I dashed into her small office, cubbyhole really, looking over her shoulder at the information someone just sent her. "Tell them to hold off on investigating it or doing anything, until we get there. Tell me that there is a mass serial killer on the loose and to ground all transports."

Angel just stared at me. "That's out of our jurisdiction."

"I don't care." I told her, giving her the data pad the killer sent me. "Braden sent me this. Besides he was our prisoner, so that does give us some leeway."

Angel read the note before cursing. "Are we leaving now?"

I nodded. "It's the only lead we have. I'm going to update Seth and start to get people together to go."

Angel nodded, already working on contacting Rindell back as I left the room.

Within the hour several of us boarded a ship that would take us there. I could only hope we would catch him quickly.

* * *

Upon arrival, we were immediately greeted by Rindell security. Luckily they weren't too upset that we were stepping onto their toes, but since the killer was coming after me and that he was our prisoner, they allowed us in. Along our way to the crime scene, one of their security detectives explained what was going on. They had grounded all flights, but several had gotten out before they did so, which meant, Braden, more likely than not, was no longer on planet.

At the house, I leaned over the body, noting the dried blood on the floor besides her, the neck slit open. But that didn't seem to be what killed her, for a silk satin blood stained pillow was tossed nearly causally next to her.

I sighed, a deep ache filling me, a pit forming in my stomach. He was killing again. He was on the loose and aimed to beat me in a game of deadly intrigue. No one would be safe.

I stepped around all the cops taking notes of everything, catching up with Lexington, the detective that seemed to be in charge here. "What can you tell me of the victim?"

He sighed as he gave me her name and some basic information, finishing with "Her two children were asleep upstairs."

My gut twisted at the thought of two young ones without a mother, maybe even hearing their mother's final cries. I clinched my fists together in frustration as well as determination. There was no doubt in my mind I would catch him, but how many lives would this man destroy for the second time before I could?

Angel, who was also standing with us, somehow knowing my thoughts, put a comforting hand on my shoulder. "We'll get him, Obi-Wan, no one can ever best you for long."

I managed a slight smile, her words echoing through me, sounding so similar to what Diedre once said. Then I suddenly knew why he had chosen to kill a woman with children. I had a wife and children. He was taunting me, trying to get me down. But I wasn't going to let him. I was going to get him, at his own game.

"What is it?" She asked quietly.

I turned my attention back to Angel and Lexington. "He's targeting women with children. He's changing his pattern."

Angel didn't question me, but pulled out a data pad, already at work. "Everyone should be warned."

"Are you sure about this?" Lexington asked.

I nodded. "I'm the one that put Braden behind bars before. He's out for revenge." I gazed back to where the innocent woman had lost her life. "He obviously knows I have a wife and children."

"Makes sense, but why did he pick this one, why not someone else?"

"I don't know, but we're going to have to figure that out before I can predict where he will be going next." We stood there quietly for a moment or two, thinking of what our next move will be. "Do your hangers have any sort of security cams or passenger lists?"

He nodded. "They all have passenger lists, but only two have security cams."

"If it's not a bother, we'll need to look at those. Maybe he left us another message." I sighed, almost wishing we could catch him on camera, but he was entirely too smart for that. "We do appreciate your help."

"Your welcome." Lexington honestly said. "I would like to be updated regularly though. Her family will want to know."

"Of course." I nodded to him.

"Why don't while these guys finish up here, we go on over to the transport centers?"

"Sounds good." We let everyone know that we were leaving.

Of course the trip proved fruitless as he left the ship he had stolen and took off on another transport. "He could be anywhere." Lexington mumbled, just as frustrated as I was.

"Not necessarily." I told him. "He wants me to play his little game. He's not going too far, but if he does, he'll come back."

We headed back to their headquarters and spent the rest of the day working, studying the evidence we collected that day, making sure to get everything we could since we'd be going back to Lycon in a day or so. It was quite late as Angel, Jeremy and I sat down to eat dinner at the hotel we were staying at as they tried to distract me, but my mind refused to let it go. I couldn't help but stare out into the darkness, muttering underneath my breath. "Where are you?"

* * *

Three days later we returned back home and spent some time updating everyone what had happened on Rindell. Nearly locking myself into my office, I took all the files from Braden's previous killing spree, comparing it with his most recent murder. I stared at them, studied them, trying to figure out a pattern, but couldn't find it. His previous pattern, once completed, made sense. He had went out after young career women before, some married, some not, but no one with children. If he was going after young mothers now, changing his pattern, why wouldn't he change how he decided who his victims where?

But would he change the method to that? I sat back in my chair, seemingly staring out the window, meditating on that for a while. He had spelled words with the letters of the victims names. I had figured out who he was killing fairly easily since we got the background that his father had died after an affair he'd been having gotten out. The other woman had been found dead with him as well. The report read that he had killed her, then himself, with it suggesting that they were deranged enough to think they would be together that way. But after following the son's obsession with career orientated women, I had my suspensions that his mother, a high profile attorney had killed her husband and his lover herself or hired someone to do it.

However, what he was spelling took much longer to decipher. Of course, I did finally figure it out, but not before seven women were murdered. And if he did start to spell something, what would he spell this time? Could I decipher his word game before many more mothers were helplessly murdered? Or would he leave me more clues this time?

I would have gone on digesting this, but Angel stood at the doorway. "Come on Obi-Wan, it's getting late."

"He's out there somewhere and I have no idea when or where he's striking next." I told her, still staring out the window.

"I know." She stepped into the room, then leaned against the desk. "But brooding about it in here isn't going to help matters. Come on, I'm sure Diedre has something warm waiting at home for us. That way I don't have to cook and I'm sure that you haven't eaten since this morning."

I sighed, thinking maybe she was right, that maybe a warm meal, time with my family, would clear my mind. But as I turned off my console, the woman's name seemed to stay in my mind, considering she and my wife had the same initials.

"Obi-Wan." Angel was calling me again, tugging on my arm. "I'm not missing dinner. I'll leave you here."

"Alright, I'm coming." Knowing she would, I purposely left everything in my office, turned off the light and left, finally forcing the case a bit from my mind.

* * *

"Goodnight Daddy." Kalei yawned as I finished tucking her into bed. "I love you."

I gently brushed her hair off her face, pulling a light cover around her. "I love you too."

She yawned again, obviously fighting sleep, but cuddled her teddy bear closer to her.

Reaching down, I gently rubbed her back. She was asleep in a matter of minutes. "Goodnight my little one." Leaning over, I gently kissed her soft cheek before turning off the lights and leaving the room.

I stopped into Seth's room next door and found him still sleeping peacefully. I tucked the blanket back around him before giving him another goodnight kiss, pleased to see that he was still doing fine in his new bed. I watched him sleep for several moments, noticing how quickly he was growing, how both of them were growing.

After several long moments, I forced myself to leave his room. Walking down the hallway, I entered our room to find Diedre sitting in bed reading, looking beautiful with her hair falling down around her.

"Are the kids asleep?" She asked me, noticing I had entered the room.

"Out cold." I said as walked across the room and sat down next to her. "Though Kalei tried to fight it."

"Sounds normal." Diedre set down her book, watching me for a few minutes before changing the subject. "What happened with Braden?"

Sighing, I told her that he had struck again, but no details, not wanting to scare her. "I just hope he lets me in on this sooner rather than later."

"Honey, you can't save everyone." She reached over, running her fingers through my hair.

"Thank you love." I leaned over kissing her gently. "Are you alright? You still look a bit too pale."

"I'm fine." She immediately protested, but soon relented at the stern look I sent her. "Alright, I'm just still a bit tired from that stomach bug I had a week or so ago."

I reached over and pulled her close. "Maybe you should still go over to your parents while Braden's on the loose and that way maybe you can get some more rest."

"We'll be fine here." She immediately protested. "But I might see if Mom can watch the kids so I can rest. I just can't seem to shake this."

"Maybe you should see a doctor?" I suggested lightly, pulling away as I went to change clothes.

"I'll be fine." Diedre throw off the idea. "I just need a little uninterrupted rest."

I didn't quite agree with her, but didn't want to start an argument either. Stepping into the refresher, I changed the subject slightly. "I know it's still early, but we should be both turn in. Once he really starts killing again, I don't know how much sleep I'll get."

Diedre yawned. "Are you staying here for now?"

I walked back into the main part of the room, turning off the lights as I went. "For now."

I pulled back the covers and settled into bed, cradling my wife close. "Do you think he'll strike again soon?" She asked quietly.

"He might." I ventured. "But then again, he might let me stew about some more."

Diedre shivered in my arms. "I don't like this. I just hope you catch him soon."

I kissed her gently. "Me too."

* * *

Things stayed quiet for the next week. Braden hadn't been spotted nor made any sort of move or made any contact. So we spent most of it studying what we did have, trying to decide where he could be hiding out, checking in with everyone we could, but never came up with much. However, one day we finally got word that Braden had killed again. I hated the thought that he had killed an innocent woman, but finally knew I could hopefully get him now.

We had traveled to a planet in our system, discovering that he had killed the sister in one of the most prominent families on Barcadi. Her father had been Senator, her husband an aid to the Governor, her brother the closet aid to the their Galactic Senator.

Once we arrived at the family mansion, we found everything like I had expected, the neck slit open, with a satiny pillow soaked with blood laying nearby. And a note addressed to me.

"_Hello again Kenobi. I'm two moves up on you and you haven't made a move yet. But this time the stakes are much higher. But how high can you follow me? Let the game continue. Catch me if you can._" I set the data pad down, rubbing my hand over my beard, deep in thought. I wasn't surprised he left me a note, I'd almost been expecting it in fact, but why he had gone after the Dalton family? What was he trying to prove?

A group of us stayed on Barcadi for some time after the murder, trying to gather as much as we could. And I had a feeling his next strike would be close and would be soon. Unfortunately the case now was attracted plenty of press, not just ones on Barcadi, Rindell and Lycon. Luckily my superiors mostly handled it, leaving me to track down this killer, though occasionally I had to side step or not quite answer a question from a very annoying reporter.

But that wasn't the only thing. Apparently since a Dalton was killed, with all the added press, of course it got to the Senate. And before Seth or Chief Dan could do anything about it, a Jedi was assigned to the case. Since I had completely made my peace with my past and Qui-Gon, the thought of a Jedi involved didn't bother me that much. I just had reservations about if they wanted to take charge or not. Braden was playing his games with me, communicating with me. I hoped whoever the Council assigned to it would understand that they could only help with the case, not lead it. However when I stepped into the headquarters we had set up on Barcadi one morning, I discovered that it was going to be an uphill battle.

"Obi-Wan." Angel caught me as I was stepping through the door. "You've got to do something. The Jedi, she's ordering us out of here. She can't do that!"

I sighed, not wanting to deal with this now, well...maybe I would feel better after a cup of coffee. "Angel, the Senate is demanding it. There is not a lot any of us can do, but work together. Besides even a Jedi should understand that Braden and I have a relationship and he's not going to start communicating with someone he doesn't know."

Angel snorted. "Try telling that to her. She's impossible."

"Where is she?" I asked, hoping that Angel was making something out of nothing, but something told me she wasn't. But we wouldn't catch anyone fighting amongst ourselves. "Maybe we should just sit down, have some coffee and talk this out."

"In the conference room, trying to command the others to turn over evidence." Angel said, not believing a word I said. "Good luck."

"Thanks." I said rather dryly as we turned to the conference room. As we neared it, voices could be heard and they weren't very professional sounding either. Taking a deep breath, I pushed the door open. "What is going on in here?"

Several voices could be heard at once, several from Barcadi and our team from Lycon. I turned my head to greet the Jedi and found Siri Tachi staring at me.

"Hello Obi-Wan." Her blue eyes were narrowed and her back straight and tall. "I wasn't expecting to see you again."

"Neither was I." I almost didn't want to believe the little girl I remembered in pigtails was fully knighted. "I take it you're the Jedi the Senate assigned."

"Yes." She said and paused glancing across the room at all the others that were staring at us in stunned silence. "I take it you're the detective in charge."

"Yes." I started out slowly, hoping to work through things, but Siri would have none of it.

"Good. Then I can get started." She wasted no time. "The Senate and Jedi Council have given me full access and I'm taking over this case. So, if you could hand over all the evidence and such I would appreciate it."

I stared at her for several minutes before speaking quietly. "Why don't we all sit down and discuss this rationally, like mature adults?"

She didn't say a word as she watched me walk across the room and I started to pour several cups of coffee.

Angel had followed me in, eyeing Siri. I immediately sensed the tension reach a near shatter point. "Angel, cream or sugar?"

"Cream." Angel, well knowing I knew the answer, took the cue and stepped away from the Jedi Knight. Giving her the cup, I turned to Jeremy, handing him one as well.

After a bit of soothing people, we finally sat down and Siri stared at me. "Just hand over everything Kenobi and I'll find him."

I watched her for a moment or two, sipping on the coffee before speaking again. "I'm sure there is a way we could work together on this."

"I'm afraid my orders are very clear." She told me in no uncertain terms.

Was there something else to this? Was it just me since I had left the Jedi Order? Or did Siri just like to work independently? "Well, I'm not completely sure the Council as well as the Senate know everything about this case."

"What is there to know that anyone can't handle? A serial killer is on the loose." She stated, still leaving not much room for compromise. "The Senate demands me to find him."

I glanced at Angel who still looked like she was going to jump over the table and kill Siri at any moment, catching her eye. She shrugged as if to say to go ahead and tell her. "I'm sure they do want him behind bars, not killing people. We all want the same goal, but I don't think they are aware of one thing." I paused for a long rather dramatic moment, making sure I had her undivided attention. "You see several years ago, Jack Braden began killing young ladies, and I was one of many who worked to catch him. As I studied his pattern, learned who he was, I discovered who he was killing, why and then finally where. I was the one who baited him, caught him and provided the testimony that locked him away. Now he has escaped for one purpose and one purpose only."

I paused again and watched Siri, who was listening very intently. Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad. "To exact his revenge on me. He didn't like the fact I discovered his pattern and caught him. So now he wants me to play his game, with him coming out on top. He wants to best me."

"How can you be so sure of it?" She asked, but she seemed genuinely curious about it. "Do you have evidence to this?"

I pulled out the two data pads he had sent me and handed them to her.

She read them over, her mouth turning down with a frown.

I leaned across the table. "He communicates with me and only with me. You won't be able to catch him, to get near him, because he's playing with me."

Siri crossed her arms against her chest, obviously not liking this turn, but she understood it.

"So, as I said, I'm sure there is some way we could work together, that we could all work together on this." I looked at everyone in the room. "Because it's going to take all of us working together to catch him. Are we agreed?"

One by one they all did and I nodded. "Alright then, we have work to do."


	4. Chapter 3: Suprising Developments

**The Killing Game**

**Disclaimer: **We are making no profit off this work. George Lucas owns the characters and universe, except for a few original characters.

**AN: **Hey everyone!! I know it's been a while, but things sometimes just happen and unfortunately this story was put on the back burner for a while. However, when I recently got a review for it, I realized maybe it's time to get back to it! So, for the last several days, I've been working on this chapter and thinking how the rest of the story will go! Thank you again to all the readers that are still out there and waited patiently for updates. I'm so pleased that you have enjoyed this story so far and hope you continue to do so.

As a note Qui-Gon and Tahl are not making appearances yet, though we should be seeing them again quite soon. Siri, however, is still here and a bit more behaved!! LOL!! As for the other Jedi, I've wanted to bring some more in, especially Master Yoda, but I don't see that happening. However, there is another short story that will follow this one featuring more of Obi-Wan's old friends. Anyway, thanks again and hope you enjoy this chapter.

**Chapter Three: Surprising Developments**

****Obi-Wan's Point of View****

"Alright Kenobi." Siri Tachi cornered me soon after we had finished meeting. "I will still need to be completely briefed about this case."

Knowing she was right, I didn't bother to argue. "Come on, we'll go back into the conference room." Once we were settled in, with new cups of coffee, I asked her. "Where do you want me to start?"

"The beginning." Siri gave me a look, quite annoyed that I even asked.

Sighing, I started with Braden's history, his parents, what I found out about his childhood, the rather turbulent teenage years, then the small crimes he committed and finally into his first killing spree. Then I brought her up to speed on his escape and what we had discovered so far.

Siri leaned back in her chair, obviously deep in thought. "Do you have a clue to where he might be hiding out?"

I shook my head. "Another detective has been assigned to trace any family members that aren't dead or in prison. Hopefully that will pan out. We've already checked all his old haunts and haven't found a clue." I sat in thoughtful silence for a few minutes. "I think that's about where we are. I was planning to have a full team meeting, get all the clues together, see what contacts everyone has, what we can do, maybe who his next victim could be, get everyone on the same page."

She nodded, seemingly impressed. "Sounds like a plan."

We got up and headed into the main room, calling everyone to attention. "Alright people, we have a serial killer on our hands and between all of us, we can nail him again." I glanced around at everyone, then pulled over the empty board in the corner, grabbing a pen. "We all should be on the same page with this. Now, let's go over what we know about Braden, then we'll start on the victims and maybe we'll finally get somewhere."

So we spent the next while categorizing and organizing everything we had into one place. I let everyone stew over what we had gathered before asking. "Now what do the victims have in common?"

Quiet reigned before Angel spoke. "They are both mothers, but they have nothing else in common. The first one is a house wife and the other is a member of a prominent political family. Even if they lived on the same planet, they are in completely different social and economic classes."

"Okay, we know he's targeting women with children, but anything else you can see? Any other possible connections? Anything strike you about the names of his victims?" At some of their faces, I explained. "Remember Braden likes to spell things with his victims names. I've already compared what he spelled before to the names now and they aren't corresponding. If he is spelling something, it's new."

As they all started shaking their heads, I knew it was time to move on. "Okay, I think for now, we'll continue to think on this and add to it as we learn more. For now, if anyone has any contacts that might have any sort of connection to Braden or to his past, or if they have heard anything from the streets, use them. Braden has to be hiding and working somewhere. He picks his victims for a reason and has to find out his information somewhere. Someone somewhere has to know where he is and we need to find him."

I turned to the teams from Rindell and Barcadi. "I want you to team off and pull whatever coworkers you can if need be. The victims' families and friends should be interviewed again. Gleam anything from, anything suspicious, any connections they might have to each other and to Braden." I turned back to Jeremy. "Any word on Todd's search for Braden's family?"

"No." He shook his head. "But if there are any out there, Todd will find them. I'll contact him to see if he has any updates or leads."

Once he left, I turned to Siri, who was still staring at the board. "Any insights? Anything you can gleam from this?"

She sighed several minutes later. "Nothing from this, but have you talked to the security stations at all the major transports?"

"Some of them. We sent out bulletins to everyone in this sector to go on high alert, but neither I or my superiors have the authority to make them follow any safety precautions."

A grin flashed across her face. "But I do. I have the full backing of not only the Jedi Council, but the Senate. They might be more receptive to follow my directions."

I felt the smile tugging on my lips, thinking that on second thought having a Jedi around might not be such a bad idea after all. "Angel, you put together the safety procedures correct?"

"Yes and I have all the contact information as well." Angel answered, her tone quite questionable.

"Good, then." They weren't going to like this. "Now, I want you two to go take care of that now. If we can ground him, it'll be much easier to catch him."

"What?" Came two female voices in protest.

I glanced at both of them, arms across their chest with firm looks on their faces. "Look, you two. We want to catch this killer not fight among ourselves. Now, Siri you have the authority and Angel has the information. It only makes sense for you to work together."

It took a moment or two before they both agreed and nearly stomped off to do it. I watched them, shaking my head. Women.

Sighing, I turned back to the board. Running a hand through my hair, I couldn't help but wonder where Braden was going to go next.

* * *

****Diedre's Point Of View****

"Diedre, honey are you home?" I heard my mom calling my name in the early afternoon as she entered the house.

"In the kitchen." I called back as I was baking some cookies for a function at Kalei's school.

"How are you feeling?" She asked as she entered the room then went and poured herself a cup of coffee.

"Better." I answered, which was only partially true.

She gave me a look that I often given my own kids when I knew they weren't telling me something. "You look tired."

"I guess I am. Seth didn't sleep well last night, so I was up with him." I told her. "Thankfully he's napping now. He was cranky all morning."

"He's not sick is he?" Mom asked as I sat down at the table next to her, the last of the cookies in the oven. "Do I need to keep Kalei?"

"No. I'm sure he's fine." I sighed, munching on a cookie. "They just both miss Obi-Wan."

She reached over and squeezed my hand. "I know you miss him too. They'll find Braden soon and come home."

"Any new updates? Has Dad told you anything?" I couldn't help but ask. Obi-Wan had left days ago, but I hadn't heard from him.

Mom shook her head. "Nothing that we don't already know. I'm sure if Braden kills again, we'll hear all about it."

I nodded again, taking a sip of coffee. "I just hope they catch him soon. I hate to think of those children that lost their mothers."

Mom nodded before speaking her mind. "Diedre, with Obi-Wan gone and a serial killer on the loose, your Dad and I will feel much better if you and the kids stay with us."

"Mom, we are fine." I protested. "If more things start happening, I'll come over. But for now, I'll be fine here. Besides that, especially with Obi-Wan gone, the kids and I are more comfortable here. I don't want to put you out either."

"Honey, Gabe, your brother, has his own place and Katrina is away at school. Of course, Roxana being seventeen is never at home and the house is nearly always empty." Mom was obviously playing up the empty nest, but with a large extended family, all in the area, she rarely had a empty house.

"Don't try that rouse on me. It won't work."

"Bethany is staying with Aunt Sofia while Jeremy is away." Mom just had to bring up my cousin's wife.

"Mom, that was her decision. Besides, you know Jena has colic and I think Aunt Sofia stays up with her so Bethany can get some sleep. Jeremy being gone was just the excuse so she can play grandma."

Mom was obviously trying to think of something else as I got up and pulled the cookies from the oven. Before she could say anything, I pulled the icing out of the refridge unit. "If you have some time you can help me ice these before Seth wakes up."

"Alright." With that we spent the next hour or so icing cookies.

* * *

****Obi-Wan's Point of View****

"Obi-Wan." Angel interrupted my mediation on Braden's victims and where he could be striking next. "Todd's back."

I looked up at her, instantly knowing that something wasn't right. "Alright then." I set down what I had been looking at and reached for my notes. "Let's go back into the conference room."

Siri and Jeremy soon joined us as Todd started his report. "It took some doing, considering Braden's family history of living with his mother, being moved to group homes and such, but I found a second or third cousin through marriage that he's reconnected with."

Todd paused for a long moment before saying it and we all groaned, including Siri. Lindon McFadden specialized in bomb making, selling them on the black market, to the highest bidder. Undercover security forces finally found him when he sold a bomb to a bounty hunter that was latter caught and ratted him out.

Before I could even ask it, Todd sighed and said. "Unfortunately, he was able to afford a good but shifty lawyer who managed to get him off on the majority of his charges. The prosecutors were only able to get him on accessory to murder. Then he was able to get out on parole, oh about five months or so ago."

"Any contact with Braden while they were still in prison or after McFadden got out?" I asked, trying to recall if the prison officials said if Braden received any visitors shortly before his escape.

"Not in person." Todd said as he began passing a packet around. "Apparently, while still in prison, McFadden had learned what his younger cousin had done and wrote to him. Correspondence between the two wasn't very much until he was released for good behavior, which then they increased. I went back to the Lycon prison and re questioned the officials and was able to get copies of their letters."

"Did they say why they didn't mention this before?" I couldn't help but question.

"First off they didn't realize who Braden was corresponding with and secondly these letters raise no suspensions. I have been looking them over and I can't find anything either, but maybe one of you can. It must be in some sort of code."

We all started looking through the letters. At first glance nothing seemed to jump out at any of us, but maybe a thorough search would lend us to breaking the code or figuring out the clues.

"Being somewhat distant cousins, knowing it was about the only lead we had, I did a little research." Todd spoke again several minutes later. "McFadden grew up here on Barcadi. From what I discovered, like his cousin, he didn't have a very happy home life and often found himself in trouble, living on his own, getting into fights, committing small petty crimes. However, I was able to find that he, as a teenager, worked for one of the older Dalton's, as a stable hand or something and was trying to earn an honest living. However, there was some sort of incident involving one of the daughters and well, it didn't turn out in McFadden's favor. His life went down from there."

We all stared at him, almost not believing he had found such a strong connection. Now we at least knew why Braden had killed a Dalton. For his cousin. I suddenly didn't like the sickening feeling growing in my stomach. We had a serial killer and one of the best bomb makers in the entire galaxy most likely working together.

"Do you think this means McFadden will now bomb someone for Braden?" Angel asked several minutes later, breaking the silence.

"I hope not, but I wouldn't be too surprised if he did."

"Do you have any idea of where McFadden is?" I asked Todd, thinking if we could get a hold of him, we could get Braden faster.

Todd shook his head. "Once I realized he could be a link, I started working on that and came up with nothing. They mostly likely are hiding out somewhere new and are working together."

"What about his parole officer?" Jeremy asked. "Can we find him that way?"

"McFadden did report in at his last scheduled time, but when I told the officer that he'd been corresponding with a family member whom is at large, he tried to contact him and even stopped by his last known address and has had no contact." We all brightened slightly at that news, it almost assuring us the two were working together. "Since this is a murder investigation, I do have his next scheduled visit and he will contact me if he finds or hears from McFadden before then."

We all grew quiet for several minutes, letting all of this sink in before I spoke. "Good work Todd. We have a better handle on things with that information. I'm assuming you've also updated the Chef."

He nodded before asking about any updates here and we filled him in, including formally introducing him to Siri.

Todd raised an eyebrow, obviously quite curious as to why a Jedi was now involved, but wisely didn't comment. Instead, he asked. "Have any of you eaten lately? When I stayed at home for a day or so, Mom gave me enough food to feed an army."

We all glanced at each other smiling. Home cooked meals sounded just what we needed and Aunt Sofia's food was the best.

"Good." Jeremy said. "It beats eating out or Angel's cooking."

"Like yours is any better." She fired back, not missing a beat. "Didn't you get married so you didn't have to eat your own cooking?"

Todd and I started laughing as Jeremy pretended to be offended before firing back at her. "At least I didn't burn anything down."

"For the record." Angel glared at us as we continued to laugh. "Nothing burned down. I just left the dish in the oven too long."

"Sure Angel." Jeremy said, also laughing. "Tell that to fire department who busted the door down."

"I was sixteen, come on." Angel protested. "It's not like you didn't do stupid things too." Her gaze cut across to me. "Come to think about it, weren't you upstairs, let's say with Diedre?"

Jeremy and Todd hooted as I faked innocence as Diedre and I were making out, nearly getting caught by Gabe, completely missing the growing smell of smoke. "I was upstairs asleep as I had been working the night before. I slept through most of it and didn't hear a thing until the front door was busted open."

Angel gave me a look and snorted. "Uh-uh, that really explains the lipstick that I swore I saw on your collarbone."

We continued to laugh and banter for another moment or so until Siri finally broke into the conversation, looking completely confused. "Am I missing something here? How are you all related?"

"Those two loons over there are brothers." Angel explained, still laughing a bit. "I'm their cousin as our fathers are brothers. Obi-Wan, on the other hand, is married to my older sister."

Siri just stared at us for a moment. "Is your whole family cops or something? Is there any more crazy relatives I need to worry about?"

We all looked at each other, heading towards the food, going over a little family history with her. After we finished eating, the other three going to back to work, still joking around, Siri looked over at me. "Besides chasing this killer, you look happy."

I couldn't help but smile, thinking of home with Diedre and the kids. "I am. The family can be a bit crazy at times and you can't ever seem to escape from them, but I don't think I would change it."

"We've always wondered what happened to you, especially Garen and Bant." Siri mused as we headed back inside. "I remembered they mentioned that you and Qui-Gon reconnected."

I nodded, remembering the storms that stranded him on planet for several days, forcing us to finally let go of the past. "Yes, we did."

She was about to ask something else as we were interrupted by Angel, saying the press wanted an update. Siri and I glanced at each other and we went to go handle it, thinking we could finish catching up later as we started debating who was going to speak to the press.

* * *

****Diedre's Point of View****

I was dead tired as I pulled the speeder up in front of the house. It had been a long day and I still wasn't sleeping much knowing Obi-Wan was chasing a killer. Sighing, I climbed out, then came around to let Seth out of his safety seat. Setting him on the ground, I picked up one of the grocery bags. "Okay, Seth, let's get inside. Maybe we can have a snack before we go get your sister from school."

Instead of running straight toward the door or jumping around everywhere, Seth hovered close to me as I pulled the mail from the box. Flipping through it, I pulled out a small envelope with a datapad in it. "This is rather interesting."

I stopped and looked it over, seeing if there was a name or anything with it. Was this a new form of junk mail? I gently touched the screen to see if it would come on, but nothing happened. Tucking it back into the envelope, to throw away later, I headed toward the house.

"Mummy, no." Seth was suddenly yanking on my shirt. "No mummy, we can't go."

I set down the bag, not wanting to deal with a tantrum outside where my neighbors could see us and I wasn't in the mood to handle it either. "Seth, stop that right now. We're going inside."

In response, Seth planted his feet on the sidewalk and refused to move. "Not going mummy. Not good."

I was about to pick him up, regardless but something Obi-Wan once told me rang in my mind. _"They will feel the Force, Diedre, there is no getting around that. They will see things before they happen or have a bad feeling about something. Listen to their instincts and insights, they are mostly likely right."_ "What is not good?"

He just pointed toward the house.

"What about the house?"

Seth started shaking. "Not good mummy."

I wasn't quite sure what to do. He felt something, but didn't know what. Sighing, I turned to go into the house by myself, just to clear the way when Seth ran, hiding underneath the speeder. "Seth."

I only took a few more steps when a loud noise, a big bang, came from behind me. Pure instinct told me to run and when a force of air hit me, it sent me nearly flying. As I rolled on the ground, luckily in the grass nearly in the neighbor's yard, I breathed in the distinctive smell of fire and smoke and heard the roar of wood and stone breaking. Someone had put a bomb in my house.

Fear for my son instantly startled me up from the ground. Ignoring the bumps and bruises I could feel, I dashed back to the speeder, pulling Seth out and held him close against me, trying to soothe his shaking body and nearly frantic cries. Nearly chocking on the smoke, I ran for the neighbor's to call for help.

* * *

"Can I go home now?" I asked the doctor as I was examined in the emergency room of the hospital a couple hours after the explosion. After all, the police arrived, asking questions, the fire department put out the remaining flames, the press was everywhere, my entire family and every other person in the neighborhood watched it all unfold in absolute shock. I just wanted to find a bed somewhere and sleep, but mom insisted to get checked out to make sure Seth and I were really unhurt. Still in shock, I didn't protest as she drove us to the local med center.

Meanwhile, the doctor looked over his clipboard at me. "Your blood pressure is still a bit high, but other than that you seem to be okay, except for a few bruises. I just want to wait for the lab results to come back before we release you. You were really lucky. You could have easily broken something."

I sighed as the doctor left the room, knowing if it hadn't been for Seth, we'd both be dead. Blinking away the tears, wanting Obi-Wan to hold me and tell me everything was going to be alright, but he wasn't here. So I focused on something else. "Mom, where's Kalei? Did someone think to pick her up from school?"

"Gabe went to go get her. He and Roxana will look after her." She told me, looking as stressed as I felt. "It'll be okay honey. You and Seth are unhurt. We can replace your things."

I nodded, again blinking away the tears, trying to think that she was right, but it was much more than that. Obi-Wan and I had bought the house, with help from mom and dad, shortly before the wedding. We spent the first night there on our wedding night. It's where we made our babies and watched them grow. "Oh Mom, what am I going to do? I don't know if our insurance covers bomb damage. We've lost everything."

She wrapped her arms around me, careful not to wake Seth who was sleeping besides me. "I'll take you and Seth back to our house and you can stay there. Then tomorrow we'll start taking care of everything."

"But there might still be stuff we can salvage."

"Diedre, even if there is they won't let us in so soon, it'll be several days at least. Besides they consider the bomb a part of the investigation anyway."

I couldn't help but groan. "Alright. I do feel like I could sleep for a year."

She gently kissed the top of my head and with her hand gently stroking my hair, I began to relax a bit. Maybe things would be okay. If Obi-Wan would come home, even for a few hours, just enough to hold me.

It was a bit before the doctor came back in, followed by another one. My stomach nearly dropped. Something was going on.

"Diedre, you have nothing wrong with you." I sighed in relief. "However, we did find something on your lab results. Did you know you are pregnant?"

My mom gasped as I stared back at the doctor. I was pregnant? Obi-Wan and I had taken precautions, but maybe when we took that trip nearly eight weeks ago, I forget a dosage or something. "Is the baby alright?"

The doctor turned to the lady standing behind him. "That's why I've asked Dr. Shelby, our ob/gyn on call to come make sure."

After the proper introductions, my mom took Seth from the room as I was fully examined, including having an ultrasound. Thankfully everything seemed normal, and though I showed no signs of miscarriage, I was given strict instructions to stay off my feet for the next several days at least and to check in with my regular ob/gyn doctor within the week. Of course if I felt anything that felt like cramping to come in immediately.

Finally after that, signing tons of paperwork, I was allowed to go. Mom carried Seth as I walked besides her. I was pregnant again. I had no home, a husband chasing a dangerous criminal, two little ones with another coming. I knew I should have felt even more overwhelmed, even more pressure with everything happening in one day, but yet I didn't. For the first time since my house was blown up, I smiled. I was having another baby.

I could tell Mom was worried about me, but a slight twinkle in her eyes showed she was also pleased. There had been much darkness lately, but at least this would be a happy event.

"Let's get you home and off your feet." Mom helped me into the speeder. "I'll take care of things."

I nodded my head, extremely thankful for my family right now. "Mom, can we tell everyone the doctor wanted me to rest? You can tell Dad, but I would prefer to tell Obi-Wan about the baby before the rest of the family finds out."

"Of course." Mom well knew once it started getting around, Obi-Wan would more than likely find out from someone else that I was pregnant.

"Did Dad com him? Does Obi-Wan even know our house is pretty much gone?" I asked as we drove to my parents' house.

"I don't know. I'll ask once we get you and Seth settled." Mom assured me.

We arrived at the house shortly and she helped me in and up to bed, lending me some clothes to sleep in. Quite tired, I crawled into the bed, pulling Seth close against me, grateful for his warm very much alive body next to mine. Blinking and sniffing away the tears, trying not to think that I'd lost nearly everything, but that my son was alive and unhurt, I finally fell asleep.

* * *

****Obi-Wan's Point of View****

"Obi-Wan." I felt a hand shaking my shoulder as I was finally able to get some much needed sleep after holding a long press conference. "Wake up."

"Angel what is it?" She stepped back as I wiped the sleep out of my eyes before turning on a light. I glanced up at her and was shocked to see her face nearly sheet white. Fear settled into my stomach. I'd never seen her so shaken.

"Dad's on the com unit for you." Her voice too shook slightly. "McFadden struck."

I reached for my shirt and pulled it on before swinging around and standing up from the couch I was able to nap on. "What did he hit?"

"Obi-Wan." Angel was on the verge of tears, but she pressed on. "He blew up your house."

For a moment the room spun and I quickly sat back down. Taking a few deep breathes, I asked. "Diedre? The kids?"

"Thankfully they are fine, shocked of course, but unhurt." She assured me and I have never felt so relieved of anything in my entire life. "They've moved in with mom and dad for now. I think Dad wants to go over everything with you."

I nodded, following her from the room, having a bad feeling that this case was far from over. It was still only the beginning.


	5. Chapter 4: Making Adjustments

**The Killing Game**

**Disclaimer: **We are making no profit off this work. George Lucas owns the characters and universe, except for a few original characters.

**AN: **Hey everyone, I'm sorry about the lack of updates, but sometimes unfortunately this story doesn't get worked on as much as our others do, but have no fear, I believe the end is in sight and have a much better grip on the story. There might be only a couple more chapters and then an epilogue. I know our profile page has mentioned a sequel, but knowing how hard this story was to write sometimes, though I've enjoyed it, I've decided to scrape that idea and just do one shots, maybe on the past or maybe something in the future as well. I do still want to bring in Master Yoda sometime, so that might be one of them.

Anyway, thank you again to all our readers for sticking with us and hope you can still enjoy it, despite the lack of updates. Hope you enjoy this chapter. It is a bit shorter than the others have been, but thought to at least get something out to you. Qui-Gon and Tahl finally make their appearance again!

**Chapter Four: Making Adjustments**

****Diedre's Point of view****

I slowly awoke, not believing that my house was gone, completely gone and there was a mass murderer on the loose. I sighed, running my hand over my still flat middle, thinking of something else that was recently learned. This wasn't what Obi-Wan and I were planning but Seth was getting much bigger and I missed having a baby around.

Since the explosion happened several days ago, I'd been a good girl and mostly stayed in bed except for when my stomach decided not to keep anything down or when I saw my oby-gyn. Thankfully everything was normal and there was still no signs of trauma, but still told to keep off my feet as much as possible, just to be on the safe side.

"Honey, how are feeling?" Mom knocked on the door and stepped into the room.

"Okay, considering." I sighed. "Where are the kids?"

"Playing downstairs with your sisters." Mom set the tea tray she was carrying on the bedside table. "I think they bounce back from things faster than we do."

I nodded, slowly sipping the tea. "Anything new?"

Mom shook her head. "No, I'm afraid not."

I wished this was over with, that I would wake up and all of this would be over or better yet, be a nightmare, Obi-Wan would be home and I would still have a house. He had contacted me the other day and we were able to talk for a while. I didn't tell him about the baby though, thinking he didn't need to have to adjust to that news while tracking down a criminal and I'd prefer to tell him in person.

"Diedre, honey." I looked up as Mom put a hand on my shoulder, breaking my thoughts. "It's going to be alright."

"No it's not Mom. I called our insurance and our policy really doesn't cover bomb explosions, but with the situation, they will consider giving us something." I pushed myself out of the bed, slipping on a robe. "And with a baby coming, whose father doesn't know about…..I don't know what I'm going to do."

Mom just let me rant for another minute as I went on about what was going on before giving me a hug. "Its okay honey, you've been through quite a lot recently and all those hormones too."

We held each other close for long moments before I felt my emotions simmer down and pulled away. Wiping my face, I decided to try to be practical. "Is there anything worth saving?"

"Not a lot." She said as she sat me at the small table in the room, making me eat a little. "Though don't let this get out, but your father and uncle have gotten a few things here and there. We have been storing them in the garage. You can start going through them whenever you like."

I nodded as I quietly ate, trying to decide what I needed to start with. "Do you know what they have found? Anything of value?"

Mom shook her head. "A few toys, dishes, a shirt or two…..not a lot."

I nodded. "How much things have you gathered for the kids?"

"Quite a lot actually." Mom smiled. "The entire community has really got into it too." She went into detail and I hoped I could remember what I could to thank everyone for what they were doing for us. Of course as we spent some time at my parents, the kids did have a few sets of clothes and some toys, not much, but enough to get by for a couple of days. And as I listened to her, I did feel some relief that not everything right now was bad, though it really seemed like it was.

"Okay." I pushed away the tray, suddenly not wanting anymore food. Morning sickness really is the pits. First I needed to think logically, to force myself to be productive. Wallowing around in self pity was not going to get me or my family anywhere and we certainly couldn't stay at my parents indefinitely, especially with another baby coming. "I guess the first thing, now that we got the basics covered, is to start from scratch and figure out what we can afford….." I glanced around the room. "Mom, do you have a data pad? I need to start getting everything together."

Mom looked a bit skeptical, but got what I was asking for and I slowly started to piece things together. The insurance money that we might be getting back could be enough to maybe cover what we still owed on the house. I didn't want to even think about getting a loan to cover a loan, but unless Obi-Wan received an extra commission when he caught this mad man, I wasn't sure what else we could do. Sighing again, I tried not to think about how things, in just a few days had fallen down around me, but it was never very far from my mind.

* * *

****Obi-Wan's Point of View****

"Obi-Wan, are you alright?" Angel asked me as I studied what we had gathered about the two criminals that were now working together, trying to figure out where their next move would be.

"I'm fine." I barely recognized her question, solely concentrating on the situation at hand. Ever since I'd lost my house, I'd been moving, afraid to stop and these criminals would get ahead of the game, to the point of winning. I needed to catch them before either of them struck again. I barely allowed myself to think about what we were going to do now, especially since I knew the family was taking care of Diedre and our children. "Okay, if Lindon McFadden bombed someone for Braden, I suspect he will murder someone connected to McFadden's past or have they already finished sharing and it's now a free for all?"

Angel sat down next to me, glancing over everything I had spread out over the table. "Has Braden contacted you again?"

"Not yet and I'm almost surprised." I set down the data pad and turned toward her. "He's not gloating that he destroyed something of mine, even if he didn't do it, but it was still his hand, his thought."

Angel just shook her head. "I don't know, maybe he only leaves his calling card when he kills someone."

I sighed, the words becoming quite sarcastic. "That's something to look forward to."

Angel shook her head. "I'm sorry, it was just a thought. Anyway, to answer your question, I think it's possible for them to keep trading, but also think about this. They are very intelligent and I think they will know we would have figured that out and try another route. It certainly could have been a onetime deal. McFadden could have gone back into the bomb making business and is working the black market again."

I certainly could consider that logical as well. In reality we had gotten nowhere. Our team certainly had plenty of thoughts and ideas, but nothing concrete. The only things we knew for sure was that the two were more than likely together or had been, Braden was killing women with children and he was trying to come up on top of the game he was playing with me.

Everything revolved around that.

"There has got to be something in here that gives us a clue." Angel said, now looking over everything.

"I don't think he's left us too much." I said, taking a sip of my coffee, only to discover that it had gone beyond cold. "Uh."

"There is warm coffee." Angel seemed amused, a slight smile twitching on her lips. "I made it just a bit ago."

"Your coffee is just as bad as this is." I couldn't help but joke with her, feeling the stress and tension leave a bit. "I think I will survive."

She pretended to look hurt. "Fine, then, insult your sister."

"I'm just telling the truth." I couldn't help but tease her before turning back to the work. "Now let's see if we can't find something different. Maybe if we look at this from another angle, we can find it.

"Alright." Angel said, still looking over some pictures of the crime scenes. "Where should we start?"

I took a moment and glanced over everything we had gathered. "As much as I would like to get McFadden, I think we should only concern ourselves with Braden. He was the one that escaped, he is the one killing women, and trying to plan a game with me." I paused as I looked over to her. "Is this making any sense? Or do you think I'm going in the wrong direction?"

Angel seriously considered this for a long moment before speaking her thoughts. "No, I think you're right. If we keep working on what we know about Braden and what we have gathered we have a much better chance of catching him than we would if we divided up our efforts on two criminals. And maybe that was Braden's plan of bringing in McFadden, to divert us, to divide our resources and slow us down."

"Good. At least now I know I'm not going crazy."

"Obi-Wan, I feel, being your sister, I should be honest, you are crazy." Angel grinned a bit, picking up a clean data pad. "Now, where should we start?"

After doing some studying and reorganizing, we didn't find anything that would change the case, but we did feel better about going strictly after Braden and using our full efforts on him alone. It was a bit frustrating, but I felt quite strongly we were moving in the right direction.

* * *

****Qui-Gon's Point of View****

Tahl and I landed on Lycon and things immediately felt different than when I been here before. The last time, the planet felt peaceful, felt open to visitors, but today there was something in the air, something had happened, something was wrong. Fear hung in the air. As we walked along the streets of town where Obi-Wan lived, everything was closed up tight, people moving around quietly and quickly, as if they didn't want to bring attention to themselves. No neighbors were talking in their yards, not a lot of kids playing in the park.

"Was it like this before?" Tahl asked, obviously feeling the same thing I was.

"No it wasn't." I told her. "Something's wrong."

"Can we be too late?" She asked quietly.

"Maybe, but I don't think so." I stretched into the Force, trying to figure it out. "I don't feel the urgency I did before and I also don't feel Obi-Wan's presence."

"Qui-Gon it has been a while since you've seen him." Tahl pointed out. "And he's not fully trained either, you may not be able to sense him all the time."

I shook my head and was about to say something, but a headline on a news reel in a store window caught my attention. So that explained it. "There's a dangerous criminal on the loose."

"That explains the fear." She paused before asking. "Is there a full article?"

"No." I glanced around, feeling we should keep moving.

"I wonder if it's the same one you were having a vision about." Tahl mused quietly, as if thinking aloud.

"It could be." I theorized as we started toward the neighborhood where I remembered Obi-Wan lived. "Let's find Obi-Wan, hopefully he knows what's going on."

Still clasping my arm, Tahl and I became quiet as we walked along.

I was thinking we were just a few streets away when I heard a cry. "Master Qui-Gon."

Turning around, I saw a dark haired little girl running towards me. "Kalei." Gently letting go of Tahl's arm, I knelt down and opened my arms as she dashed into them.

"I knew you'd come." She said after she gave me a big hug. "I dreamed about it."

"You did?" I asked, seeing over her shoulder, an older man striding with a purpose coming toward us. "Did you run away when you weren't suppose to?"

"That's my popie." Kalei said as I set her down and rose to meet Obi-Wan's father in law. "Popie, he's a Jedi."

He eyed me but introduced himself. "I'm Seth Cummings. And you are?"

"I'm Qui-Gon Jinn and this is Tahl." I gave a slight bow.

"Obi-Wan has mentioned you." He didn't seem very open to me, but then again, he had taken the teenager into his home, made him one of the family. "He speaks very highly of you."

"Thank you." I paused, smiling slightly as I felt Kalei wrap her arms around my legs. "Is he here? I've come to talk to him."

Seth glanced to Kalei before back to us. "He's on assignment off planet."

I felt certain there was more to it, but didn't want to talk about it in front of the child, but Kalei did that for us.

"Daddy's getting the bad guy that blew up our house." She explained, her eyes sad, like she did know that everything had changed.

"Kalei." Seth reached over, pulling her to him. "I'll tell Obi-Wan once he gets back that you stopped by."

Hearing their house had blown up, I certainly wasn't leaving now, especially with Obi-Wan not here. "I think it's imperative that we talk about this, without little ears."

Seth eyed me for a moment or two, seemingly to decide whether to trust me or not before settling with. "Alright, we can talk at my house."

Quietly we followed him to a house a few streets away and let us through the kitchen door. "Kalei, why don't you go upstairs and play, but don't bother your mother?"

The little girl quickly disappeared through the door before I asked. "Is Diedre okay?"

"A little shook up and tired from the explosion." He motioned us to sit down at the table. "She and my grandson were outside the house when it happened. Thankfully he wasn't hurt but Diedre is still pretty shook up."

"What is going?" I asked, but thought to throw this out. "Does this have anything to do with the escaped criminal?"

"You've heard already? Catch a news brief or something?" At my nod, he continued to explain that Braden had broken out of prison determined to get revenge, revenge on Obi-Wan and everything that had happened since then. "Though I find it strange that you show up now."

I sighed, thinking since Obi-Wan wasn't here his father in law would have to do. "I'm not here by accident. Diedre is in danger."

I felt quite impressed that he was quite calm and I could tell Tahl felt the same. "I take it you sensed this or something?"

I nodded, not bothering to explain the difference between feelings and visions. "The Force brought me here and I don't want anything to happen to her or to the children."

"Maybe with the bomb exploding it wouldn't be such a bad idea to have two Jedi around." He ran his hands through his graying hair. "I haven't told my family this, but the fact they destroyed their house, shows me either of them can get to us and doesn't care about murdering women and children, that the entire family is in danger. To be honest, I have thought of putting Diedre and the children in protective custody till this over."

"There are criminals out there that have been so hardened that they don't care who gets hurt or killed, just their own gratification." I told him, feeling as an officer of the law he already knew this, but maybe coming from an outside source he would feel better about it. "Now, I'm assuming Diedre and the children are staying here?"

"Yes." He shook his head. "She wanted to move into a hotel, but we managed to talk her out of it."

I couldn't help but smile. "That sounds like her."

"Yes, she gets that from her mother." The edge to his voice was hid by the smile that played in his eyes. "Anyway, thinking about it, I could use the extra protection, though we are already pretty tight with living quarters. There is my wife and I, with Diedre and the two children." He explained. "We still have a teenager at home and another one, who usually is at school off planet is home for the term break. My son, who has his own place, has temporarily moved back in for safety purposes."

"We can sleep anywhere." I assured him. "Though I would keep at least the little ones at home. Your daughters I would think would be okay since the criminal seems bent on hurting Obi-Wan or his family but I wouldn't let them go too far, especially at night and never alone."

He nodded as his wife walked into the kitchen.

"Oh, Kalei was right." She almost looked surprised. "I couldn't decide if she was making up the story of two Jedi being in my kitchen."

We introduced ourselves and Anna immediately turned to being hostess. "Is there something I can get you? You must be tired after journeying from some distance I'm sure."

"We're fine." Tahl assured her and we both took a liking to how she seemingly adjusted to the sudden influx of people in her house, especially strangers. "But thank you for your hospitality."

She nodded before glancing from us to her husband. "Please tell me you asked them to stay. I think we'd all feel better with that mad man on the loose."

"Yes they are." Seth assured her, a bit surprised she saw into everything.

"We'll we'd better get everyone moved around again." With that she bustled out of the kitchen as quickly as she came in.

Seth turned back to me. "I'm assuming you would like to talk to Obi-Wan?"

"If it's possible." I said, feeling better her father was update and on his toes about this situation.

"He checks in regularly with what's going on, so I'm assuming it will be sometime soon."

"Good. I think he should know. It might help Obi-Wan catch Braden."

"I hope so." Seth agreed and rose from the table. "I need to check in at the station but I'm sure Kalei is waiting for you. She talked about you for some time after your last visit."

At that I laughed a bit, more than ready to spend some time with my "granddaughter," but was going to keep my senses on full alert. This just wasn't a social visit, but a mission of sorts, protecting the innocent, even if it just happened to be my former apprentice's family. I glanced over at Tahl and saw the same determination that I felt. This family was not going to be hurt anymore.

* * *

**At a undisclosed location; third person**

Meanwhile, on a planet not too far away, a young mother lay on her bed, her throat slit open, a pink satin pillow lying to the side. Her hand was growing cold and limp but it still held a data pad with a message that read: "_I'm winning our game Kenobi. Did you like my show of power? And yet you still haven't made a move to find me. I expected much more from you. I was looking forward to a challenge. This has been too easy, but catch me if you can."_

* * *

AN:

PeaceGuardian: Thanks again for your support and hopefully it won't be as long between updates. We have really enjoyed, when we can, working on the ideas of combining crime/detective things with throwing in Jedi. We are very pleased our readers also like the ideas!

Jackie: Yes we are continuing the story despite the lack of updates. Thanks again. We hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as we had doing it.

Ann Jinn: Diedre is slowly learning to trust her children's instincts, but sometimes it's hard for her, acknowledging that the past of her husband still affects their lives. Putting Siri and by extent their other friends have been fun. Though no other Jedi, except Qui-Gon and Tahl, will be making an appearance in this story.

Padawan Bubby-Kenobi: We are sorry that it has been so long, but we are glad that you are still reading and waiting for our story to be updated. Thanks again and we hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Temeti: I'm sure the alerts were good for this chapter too. And this one too had a cliffhanger. I have a bad habit of leaving them quite frequently, in this story as well as our stories. And I wouldn't count them out for the rest of the story either!

Whheeeeee: Ya, it was a pretty scary chapter with Seth flipping out. Diedre is certainly coming to accept the fact her children do have the Force to some extent. Of course any children of Obi-Wan, whether he was a fully trained Jedi or not, would have some capabilities and Seth's certainly showed at the right time and place. As for Obi-Wan taking his family to the Temple, well….the Temple kinda came to him! Thanks again.

Beauty0102: We are pleased you have enjoyed our story so for. We are sorry for the lack of updates, but in a couple days, I'm going to sit down and finish planning out the rest of the story so hopefully it will get out a lot sooner. And we think you guys are going to like it!


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